Up Selling Auto Detailing Customers

Most auto detailing service providers these days are satisfied with just booking daily appointments for basic auto detailing and hand washing services. If this is what you are doing you are leaving a surprising amount of money “on the table.” There is a lot more profit to be made in the auto appearance industry today. Basic hand washing, buffing, polishing, interior shampooing and detailing are only a fraction of the services that you should be providing. There is an array of “value added” services that you can easily provide that will not eat up your bank account with inventory and additional supply costs. These services can be performed in a reasonable amount of time and generate additional profits and revenues on just about every vehicle you detail.  

I highly recommend that you perform what I call the “Vehicle Walk Around.” The walk around should be performed on every vehicle that you plan to detail. The best time to do the walk around is during the customer interview. The customer has stopped by your shop to get an estimate on getting his car detailed or he is dropping it off for a pre arranged phone-in appointment. You may have already given a "price range" to detail this customer’s car and now you are firming it up based on what the customer wants, and what you are recommending the vehicle needs. Always “listen” to what the customer is asking you to provide, then propose a solution. Once that is confirmed you can then evaluate the rest of the vehicle and make recommendations of other services that you can provide.  Your customer may have originally contacted you because his puppy vomited on the back seat and he needs it cleaned and deodorized. You solved that, now it’s time to up-sell to a complete interior detailing with ozone service and maybe even an exterior polishing service, too.

Besides offering basic exterior detailing services you may want to consider adding; rock paint chip repair, headlight restoration, plastic trim restoration, glass water spot removal, even wheel restoration. The initial investment is low for most of these auto reconditioning services. Just about every vehicle that has been driven for a few years will have many of the above issues. Rock paint chips, cloudy head lights, acid rain spots on glass, and plastic door handles and mirrors that are oxidized or discolored are all easy corrections to be performed and can generate very profitable revenues besides the basic detail service. Depending on the part of the country in which your business is located, the average charges for the services described above can add up to be a very strong invoice total for you. You can generate an additional $25-$100 for restoring a set of headlights, $60-$90 for a complete paint chip repair, $20-$50 for restoring plastic door handles and mirrors, and $30-$60 for glass water spot removal. This is real money that many of you are “leaving on the table” because you don’t know how to perform these easy to do reconditioning services. These are all simple to learn and most of the supplies will only cost you a couple of bucks per car!

Have “Vehicle Evaluation” sheets printed up and use one during each customer interview. Walk around the vehicle with your VE sheet attached to a clip board and check off what you think the vehicle needs to make it look good as new again. The exterior portion of your VE sheet may have these items listed: Oxidized Paint, Environmental Fallout, Cloudy Headlights, Rock Paint Chips, Faded Door Handles, Faded Plastic Trim, Spotted Glass, Medium to Deep Scratches, Dull Chrome, Soiled/Stained Convertible Roof, etc. Just check off what you think it needs and determine what you will need to charge the customer for these value added services. Do the same thing for the interior; Foul Odor, Faded or Badly Stained Carpets, Cigarette Burns, Vinyl or Leather Tears, Heavily Soiled Seats, Soiled Headliner, Pet Hair, etc. You can easily remove odors once you have cleaned the interior with an extractor by using an ozone generator. You can remove smoke odors, musty odors, pet odors, etc. You can purchase a good ozone generator for about $400 and it will last for years and pay for itself quickly.  Most detailers charge $50-$75 to provide ozone odor removal.

Providing carpet dying for faded floor boards and mats will only cost you a few dollars in supplies, take anywhere from ½ hour to an hour to do and can yield and extra $60+ per vehicle. Once properly trained you can repair most rips in vinyl and leather in less than 20 minutes and charge $50-$100. Carpet and upholstery cigarette burn repairs take only a few minutes and you can charge $10-$20 per repair. Again, your cost on the products used is a lot less than a gallon of gasoline!! Cigarette burn repairs only cost you pennies per hole!  There is a ton of money to be made in this business. You should strongly consider offering these very profitable auto reconditioning services. Whether you have a shop or you are a mobile detailing operator, the products used to perform these services will not take up a lot of space and don't require a large investment.

Many individuals are keeping their vehicles longer today. The buy cycle today is about 8 years.  The cost associated with purchasing a new vehicle has sky rocketed and you will need excellent credit.  Good, clean, professionally reconditioned, pre owned vehicles will bring in big bucks at the auction block. Car dealers will be very interested in hearing what you have to offer. Private car owners will also listen more closely to what you have to say and offer them. Increasing resale and trade-in value of their vehicle will be more important than it has ever been in the past. You must take the pro active approach though and be thinking out of the box. Invest in purchasing these very affordable products and be trained on how to provide these services.

Once trained, develop a comprehensive Vehicle Evaluation sheet and have a procedure on how you will execute your “walk around” and show the vehicle owner the features and benefits of having their vehicle “reconditioned” versus just having it detailed. You will reap the profits, make the customer happy, and grow your bank account. You must think this way today if you are going to survive. The auto industry will be drastically reshaping itself within the next six months. You can sit back and watch others increase their bottom line or you can move forward now and be prepared for what is about to happen. Detail King can provide the training and products for all of the services mentioned. Please contact us for more information.

Thanks and good luck,

Nick Vacco

Detailking.com

10:54 - 2008-Nov-10